Improved efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells applied with nanostructured N–F doped TiO2 electrode Original Research Article

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated with N–F-doped TiO2 electrodes. The XRD pattern of the N–F-doped TiO2 is almost the same as that of pure TiO2, showing that N and F doping has little influence on the formation of anatase titania. The influence of dopant N and F on band energetics and photoelectrochemical properties of nanostructured TiO2 electrodes were investigated. Compared with pure TiO2 electrodes, the Efb of N–F-doped TiO2 electrodes shifted a little in electrolytes containing LiClO4. However the total trap densities were remarkably decreased as TiO2 electrodes were doped with N and F. Finally the N–F-doped TiO2 electrodes were sensitized with N3 and their photoelectrochemical properties were studied. Experimental results showed that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of N3 sensitized N–F-doped TiO2 electrodes was 8.61% under irradiation of 100 mW cm−2 white light, about 17.1% higher than that of a pure TiO2 electrode.